Meticulously detailed train layout in basement of Meiers Corners house delivers the goods at Yule

Santa and his reindeer are just part of an extensive Christmas scene in James Westgate's Meiers Corners home, a large-scale model-railroad layout that takes him two weeks to assemble and grows yearly.
(Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Christmas, including Santa Claus and his flying reindeer, runs right on schedule in the Meiers Corners household where James Westgate spends two weeks assembling the elaborate model-train setup that fills his basement.

So you can set your watch by tonight's 11:59 arrival of the North Pole Central in the Gansevoort Boulevard house.

Westgate, who's 71 years old, annually expands the diorama, which includes 23 train cars, a village with figurines and 600 – count 'em – trees.

Typical of the detail is a winter sportsman in an argyle sweater, arms outsretched as he races downhill past the aptly signed "SNOWBOARD CROSS."

Westgate professes a special fondness for airborne St. Nick.

Meiers Corners resident James Westgate has been working on the model raiilroad diorama for almost 30 years.
(Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)

The layout, which Westgate started about 30 years ago to amuse the first of his grandchildren, has migrated over the years from a window ledge to the family room to a backyard shed to its present subterranean location.

Wife Lorraine loves it, as do the grandchildren, who now number 15.

Interestingly, Staten Island native Westgate has a connection to another seasonal touchstone: The lighthouse.

His father was for some years keeper of the Robbins Reef Station, soon to be revamped as a nautical museum and bed-and-breakfast. Westgate hopes to be among the first guests.

The trains are always on time with James Westgate at the controls.
(Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)